Important Changes to Federal CBD/Hemp Enforcement

As stated in the letter, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation that would require the FDA to make some major changes in the way they enforce CBD and Hemp regulations, thus falling more in line with the updated Farm Bill and rescheduling of hemp.

This morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – after consulting closely with the US Hemp Roundtable — has introduced legislation that would require the FDA to issue formal “enforcement discretion” on the sale of hempCBD products.

This is a Big Frickin’ Deal. And we need your help to get this passed.

As discussed more fully last week, a primary policy challenge facing the hempCBD industry has been FDA’s guidance that it is illegal for CBD to be introduced into interstate commerce as a food additive or dietary supplement. While the FDA has announced that it will unveil its timetable to take action toward full legalization this fall, it could be many months before they issue a formal regulation.

Today, the US Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture will “mark up” language submitted by Senator McConnell that would require the FDA to formally stand down on any enforcement of its troublesome anti- CBD guidance. Specifically, the language (linked here) would require FDA to:

Within 90 days, provide Congress a report outlining its efforts to develop an enforcement discretion policy on hempCBD;

Keep the enforcement discretion policy in effect until the agency has implemented its final regulatory process; and

Ensure that going forward, CBD manufacturers would be able share safety data through existing FDA notification procedures to be fully compliant with federal law and policy.

In the short run, the McConnell language would help lift the current regulatory cloud that’s been discouraging financial institutions to work with CBD companies, and that’s encouraged some local government officials to suggest that CBD is illegal in their state. In the long run, it would set forward a fair and expeditious path for hempCBD products to be formally recognized as safe and legal as a matter of federal law.

The bill will be marked up by the full Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, and could go to the full Senate soon.

That’s why we need you TODAY to email your US Senators to encourage them to support McConnell’s language requiring FDA to stand down on hempCBD.

Please use our online portal to email your Senator today to support the McConnell plan. And while you are there, please encourage your Representative to sign onto the Pingree/Comer letter to the FDA discussed here last week.